By RAEGAN RYAN
HOUGHTON, N.Y. – The Genesee Rapids made a late come back to defeat the Rochester Ridgemen 4-3 in New York Collegiate Baseball League action Thursday. This marked the first win of the season for the Rapids.
After playing two games in three days, one requiring 13 innings of play, Genesee came out a bit on their heels. Rochester scored the first two runs of the game in the top of the second inning.
Joe Done (Skagit Valley) led the inning with a single to left field. One pitch later, teammate Matt Jackson (Reinhardt College) was hit by a pitch and advanced to first moving Done over to second base. Done and Jackson later cross the plate to tally the first two runs of the game.
Ridgemen pitcher Jade Doyle (Ancilla College) held the Rapids offense in check for five innings recording six strikeouts while walking two batters.
“We told the guys today, you have to stick to the process,” coach Sam Bashiom said. “You can’t change things drastically because you start 0-3. You have to trust that it will work.”
The Rapids stayed the course and did just that: trusted the system.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Wes Brown (William Carey) stepped up to the plate with one out and worked a full count walk. One out later, five-hole hitter Grant Myers (Monmouth College) broke through the scoring drought and planted an RBI double into center field.
“The plate mentality that I had stepping in was just get a hit, get him (Brown) over so Murphy hopefully bring in Brown for a run to get things rolling,” Myers said. “Luckily, it was an outside pitch, took it to right centerfield for a double and got the run scored in from first.”
That wasn’t all that the Rapids had in store for the inning.
Allen Murphy (Bolivar-Richburg) recorded his first hit of the 2016 NYCBL season and Myers advanced to third base. A first and third opportunity is exactly what Bashiom was looking for.
“With our offense struggling, we had to get our parts in motion.” said Bashiom. “Getting Murph to second base is the objective and running the delayed steal is a huge bonus if we can get the run. We executed the steal and got the tying run.”
The side retired on a ground out but the momentum shift was just what Genesee needed. Bo Gilligan (Rowan) pitched his final inning striking out two and retiring the side with a fly ball to center.
The Rapids continued to follow the pattern the next inning, landing two men on base in another first and third situation. Judah Wollenburg (Rio Grande) advanced to second base via stolen base and Daniel Lockwood (St. Edward’s) was on third. Both Lockwood and Wollenburg crossed the plate on a wild pitch to give the Rapids a 4-2 lead.
Rochester answered with one run in the top of the eighth to make the score 4-3, but it wouldn’t be enough overcome the deficit by the end of play.
“I think this brought life to our team,” Myers said. “It’s always nice to get a win. We were eager for a win and now that we have our first win I think it will bring a calmness and a confidence as we move forward.”
Gilligan allowed two runs on five hits for the win. The left-hander struck out six and walked one.
Breton LaRose (Sacred Heart) hurled two scoreless innings for the save.
The Rapids improve to 1-3 and will look to continue their streak Friday at 10:00am when the Hornell Dodgers come to the Kerr-Pegula Athletic Complex.
Rochester hosts Wellsville Saturday night. A 7 p.m. first pitch is scheduled.
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